Meanwhile, back with the others...
Lady and Nero had followed Barry back to the dining room. He showed them the door where Jill had come from, and they decided to start their exploration from there.
...Which didn't get very far, as they found a zombie standing in their way.
Nero sighed, taking care of it with a shot from Blue Rose. Much to his surprise, the force of two bullets hitting the zombie's head vaporized its skull completely. The headless body pitched forward, and then was still.
"That was...way too easy," he said suspiciously. "Keep an eye on it; for all we know, it'll grow two more heads or something."
Lady shook her head. "Normal zombies are like that. Take out the head, and you take away the threat."
"Isn't that an ineffective monster, then?"
"Not for most humans. Get enough of these things in one area, and..."
Nero became aware of just how empty the mansion was. "I guess." They followed the corridor past the zombie's corpse.
That's not redundant, is it?
Anyway, they made their way down the hallway, past what seemed to be a metal-barred cage or elevator (maybe both), and down a set of crumbling steps to a door.
...Which was locked. Wonderful.
"Let's backtrack to the dining room," Lady suggested. "Barry might have found a key or something like that."
Thus they did.
...And Barry was nowhere to be found.
"That does it," Nero grumbled. "I'm siding with Dante. This is getting all too familiar. Locked doors, backtracking, nobody around to help."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Lady asked semi-irritably. Though she had to admit he had a point.
Suddenly, without warning, Nero grabbed her around the waist. "Hang on tight." He sent the Devil Bringer out, launching them up to the upper floor. He set Lady down. "All right. Let's see if-"
SLAP!
"What the hell was that for?!" he growled, rubbing his face.
"Next time you have a plan, EXPLAIN! Don't just grab me and expect me to read your mind! Sheesh...no wonder you and Dante tend to work alone..."
"Hey, hey, I'm sorry, okay? Can we put this behind us for a little while, just so we can keep moving?"
She sighed. "Fine. But warn me next time."
"Deal."
"Urrryahhh..."
The noise came from behind Lady. She whirled around instinctively, shooting it with her pistol.
The zombie fell forward, blood pouring from its forehead. At which point, two more came shuffling up behind it. They were similarly dealt with.
Satisfied, Lady holstered her pistol...and then remembered. She only had one clip for each of her weapons, and likely only one missile for Kalina Anne if she was lucky. She needed to keep a close eye on her ammo if she was going to-
And then it hit her.
"Hey, Nero? Remember when we met Jill and Barry in the main hall?"
"Yeah, and?"
"...Why didn't they say anything about Kalina Anne?"
He blinked. "Who's Kalina Anne?" Then he frowned. "You...don't have an imaginary friend, do you?"
"No, you ass!" she snapped. "It's the name of my missile launcher! I named it after my mother!"
"...Oh." Oops. Well, now he felt like a jerk. Great.
"...ANYWAY, my point is...why didn't they mention it? They're police officers, after all; wouldn't someone carrying a bazooka on their back raise a few red flags?"
Nero frowned. Come to think of it, they also hadn't mentioned his arm, either. "Well, maybe they didn't see it?"
" 'Didn't see it'? How could they not?"
"Well, I don't know what to tell ya. Maybe they had crappy eyesight or-" He cut himself off, his eyes widening. "Lady...do you think it was...him?"
" 'Him' who?"
"That black-cloaked bastard. The one who took Kyrie."
"You think...he was casting an illusion over us? But he's always been close when he..." Her eyes narrowed. "You're thinking he was in that room with us."
"Yeah," he growled, nodding. Bastard had been in the room with them the whole time, and he'd gotten away.
He walked forward to the nearest door, trying it. This door was unlocked. The two walked through it, into the hallway beyond.
Kyrie opened her eyes, looking around. This new place they were in...it wasn't like Ichigo's world at all. It seemed...familiar, yet not.
And...she was also in a cell. That was likewise different.
"Hello?" she called out. "Nero? Lady? Dante? Where are you?"
She received no reply.
She surveyed her cell. It seemed to be very old, and the stone benches inside were crumbling...but it was also clean. For that, she was grateful.
Kyrie looked out of the window in her cell door. She was in a basement. Well, possibly. If they'd ended up in a castle, the prison, while usually in the dungeons, could also be located within one of the towers.
She sighed, frustrated. Had that man done this on purpose? Made her the proverbial princess locked in a tower against her will? Kyrie was not a violent person, but she wondered if that black-cloaked man could do with a slap.
She couldn't perceive anything else about her surroundings...except a feeling. A very odd sensation.
Kyrie couldn't explain how, but this place felt very...sick. Not in a deranged sense, but...it felt as if something about the world itself was very ill.
"Where am I?"
"You're in the Spencer Mansion, as it so happens."
She jumped at the sudden voice. Turning around, she saw the man (what was his name again?) sitting on one of the cell benches. "You're that man from before."
He nodded, giving a short bow. "Mar, at your service. I suppose you're wondering why I've locked you up, yes?" She nodded. "I doubt you'll believe me, but...this is actually for your own protection."
She blinked at that. "I don't understand."
He sighed. "This mansion...is full of monsters. Some are slow, some are fast, and some are freakishly mutated fly monsters. It's dangerous out there, and this is the safest place I could bring you to."
She hadn't been expecting that. "Why are you worried about keeping me safe?"
"For Nero's sake. He may not like me at all, but..." He seemed to struggle with something. "...But I respect him. There, I said it."
"If this world is so dangerous, why bring us here?"
He smirked. "I always knew Nero saw a lot in you..." His smirk dropped. "I have my orders. You all needed to be brought here."
"But why me?" she wondered. "I'm not like Nero; I can't fight demons."
"That's true. But tell me...do you know how powerful Nero is, when he's fighting to save or protect you? Even if you're not fighting, it is necessary for you to be here." He stood up. "He's strong, Kyrie. That strength is essential to...certain entities. The ones that give me my orders."
"Why do you follow your orders?" she asked. "Why take us from our world at all?"
"...I can't say. Not yet, anyway." He sighed. "Now...is there anything you'd like me to get you? Food? Water? Music? Pen and paper?"
"You could let me out," she said innocently.
"Oh. Well, all right then." He was just grabbing on to the door handle when he paused. "Nice try. But this really is for your own good. If you need me for anything else, just call out my name." With that, a portal opened at his feet. He dropped into it, with the portal closing immediately behind him.
Kyrie sighed. So she was trapped again. She was able to actually move around and call for help this time, but was still trapped all the same.
"Nero..."
The man in question had just made it through the door with Lady, but just as he turned around, he found a gun in his face.
"Freeze! Who the hell are you?!"
Lady brought her gun up on reflex, but Nero didn't. Truth be told, the only one who'd ever pointed a gun at him before was Dante, and it was never point blank.
The person (man, judging from the voice) had actually managed to take him by surprise. It was almost funny.
...Scratch the almost.
"Easy, there. We're human." More or less. "I'm Nero. Who are you?"
The man holding the gun eyed the both of them, still not dropping his guard.
Reluctantly, Lady lowered her pistol, sighing.
The man did the same. "Officer Redfield, of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service. You're under arrest."
Nero blinked. "...What?"
He smirked. "...Just kidding." Then he frowned. "Still...who are you two? Where'd you come from?" He eyed Lady. "Some sort of military outfit?"
"We're, uh...lost," Nero finished lamely.
Redfield blinked. "Just lost?"
Lady rolled her eyes. "Look, with all the undead things roaming around in this mansion, are you really going to say no to free allies with rocket launchers?"
He chuckled. "Well, when you put it like that..." He smirked. "I guess I should count myself lucky. If supernatural creatures like the ones from movies are randomly appearing, at least it's not dragons."
Nero shrugged. "Eh, I was never much of a movie person. Comics are my thing."
He snorted. "That's even worse! Shooting at the shambling undead is fine, but I'd be horrified if I had to go up against...against Spider-Man, or Magneto or something."
Nero began to get a very bad headache, but shrugged it off. "I wouldn't mind them, actually. Now if we're talking The Hulk..." He shook his head. "Even I'm not that eager for that fight. Dante would probably love it, though."
Redfield gave an odd smile. "The Hulk, huh? You're right, but...now that you say it, I almost want to try it."
The headache was REALLY bad now. Nero stopped talking, focusing on fighting off the migrane.
"We're getting off topic," Lady noted. "And before you ask, no. We have no idea what's going on here either."
"I don't suppose you'd know...how I got here?"
Lady blinked. "You don't know?"
"Nope. I was walking through a door to get away from one of those things on the first floor...and then I found myself here. From what I can tell...this is the second floor, right?" They nodded. "Something strange is going on here..."
Nero had a good idea what had happened to Officer Redfield, but he felt it probably wasn't prudent to say that a black-cloaked wizard had teleported him from one room to another.
"You got that right, officer."
Redfield shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about that crap, now. Just call me Chris." He motioned for them to continue.
Shrugging, they followed Chris down the corridor.
None of them heard the lock click closed on the door they had come through.
And there's this chapter!
Well, the usual. Read, review, reduce, reuse, recycle...
...Wait, back that up. You know what I mean.
Anyway, one more to go for tonight! See you in the next chapter!
P.S. - I only hope I'm able to tie the stories together relatively well. The problem with RE1 and RE2 is that a lot of their puzzles and routes through the game are identical (though they do switch it up a little in 2). Thus, trying to mash them together means that either the puzzles have to get undone deliberately or just skipped altogether. And let's be honest; do you really want to see me write the same puzzle setups for two sets of characters teams?
...That said, though, the puzzles for the game are going to have a few twists here and there, so don't think a strategy guide will save you. ;-p